Nikolay Ponomarev-Stepnoy, Vice President of Kurchatov Institute

– Peculiarity of fundamental science everywhere in the world is its obligatory financing by the state

Director General of Rosatom State Nuclear Energy Corporation Sergey Kiriyenko has suggested consolidating the institutes carrying out fundamental research in the field of physics into one center. The development of fundamental studies must become the fourth major program in Russia’s nuclear industry. “The main thing we must do is to preserve this potential. It must be a system of collective use with specific tasks,” says Kiriyenko.

In the Soviet times the nuclear industry was based on fundamental science, comprised institutions carrying out fundamental research and actively used the capacities of the institutes of the academy of sciences and other ministries. Without them our sector would not be able to solve its tasks. There is an idea to withdraw all fundamental research institutes from specific sectors (and Rosatom as well) and to consolidate them into one federal agency. My question is how Rosatom will communicate with them. If, today, many research companies are controlled by Rosatom because they are part of its system, their incorporation into a special agency may create a communication gap we will find hard to fill.

This medal has a reverse side. The point is that Rosatom is no longer a federal agency but a state corporation. I don’t know if it can have its own budget for fundamental studies. The peculiarity of fundamental science everywhere in the world is its obligatory financing by the state.  

So, there is a certain contradiction: on the one hand, fundamental science must be closely connected with the nuclear industry, on the other, it must be financed by the state. This contradiction arose when the Federal Nuclear Energy Agency was reorganized into Rosatom State Nuclear Energy Corporation and we will yet have to solve this problem. The national laboratories of the US Department of Energy are just one example of how we can do it. In any case, it would be good if our fundamental research companies could work together and could enjoy worthy financing.